Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX: BSX) announced that further Massive Sulfide Vein (MSV) mineralisation was intersected from all the five additional drill holes at the King Snake prospect within its Ta Khoa Nickel Project in Vietnam.
The company said that the drill hole KS21-06 intersected 19.55m of continuous mineralisation, including disseminated sulfide (DSS), semi-massive sulfide vein (SMSV), and MSV.
BSX said that the new intersections together with historic drill results have defined a strike length of 800m. Importantly, the mineralisation is open in multiple directions.
Exploration program at King Snake
The new EM targets generated in November 2020 were followed up with diamond drilling, with six of the first seven holes intersecting massive sulfides along with associated disseminated sulfides (DSS).
The company had reported wide nickel sulfide intersections from the maiden drilling program at King Snake. This included 9.4m of sulfide mineralisation including 1.18m of MSV (hole KS20-02) and 1.97m of MSV (hole KS20-03).
Following this, BSX had commenced drilling five additional drill holes at King Snake, KS21-03, KS21-04, KS21-05, KS21-06, and KS21-07. Blackstone announced that Massive Sulfide Vein (MSV) has been observed in all drill holes.
Further MSV mineralisation
BSX reported that all five additional drill holes at King Snake intersected MSV mineralisation. Blackstone’s drilling at King Snake is focusing on new Electro-magnetic (EM) geophysics targets which extend down plunge to the west of historic drilling. BSX said that the initial visual results suggest greater thickness of sulfide mineralisation down plunge of historic drilling.
The company said that the most significant intercept from the latest round of drilling at King Snake was KS21-06, which intersected 19.55m of sulfide mineralisation including DSS, SMSV, and MSV.
Sulfide mineralisation zones in KS21-06 are as shown below.
The results from Blackstone’s maiden program at King Snake together with historic drill results have defined a strike length of over 800m at King Snake which includes MSV, SMSV, and DSS.
Maiden resource at King Snake
The Company reported that it is targeting a maiden resource at King Snake in 2021. BSX said that King Snake may be incorporated into ongoing mining and processing studies as sufficient data becomes available.
With resource estimation currently underway at Ban Chang, King Snake has become the Company’s highest priority MSV exploration target. Multiple drill rigs are currently on site and will continue to test the extent of the mineralisation.
Updates and next steps
The company said that the exploration activities at the site have been cut back to a minimum due to the Lunar New Year celebrations and holiday period, while staff and contractors spend time with family. BSX said that normal activities are expected to resume from the 22nd of February.
Blackstone Minerals said that it plans to conduct further drilling and associated activities to better define and extend the identified mineralised zones.
The Company said that it expects to provide an update regarding the anticipated King Snake assay results, along with results from ongoing infill drilling at Ban Chang and Ban Phuc DSS over the coming weeks.
BSX noted that King Snake has the potential to materially add to the Company’s MSV mining inventory and support the restart of the existing 450ktpa Ban Phuc concentrator.
Management comments
Blackstone Minerals’ Managing Director Scott Williamson said: “We are pleased by the rate of drilling at King Snake and the success of our exploration strategy in following up EM targets defined by our in-house geophysics team.
King Snake features multiple EM plates and is proving to be one of Blackstone’s best massive sulfide nickel opportunities to date. We look forward to further aggressive drilling, reporting assays as they become available and being able to incorporate King Snake into our massive sulfide strategy.”
* Image source: Blackstone Minerals Limited